If you’d like to learn how to improve your memory, then stop what you’re doing now! No matter how young or old we are, we have a brain that needs protecting and looking after. On a societal level, there are things that we do or don’t do which can can affect our brains – like, living an inactive lifestyle, not drinking enough water, over-indulging in alcohol, consuming the wrongs types of food and exposure to certain chemicals. As we age, the part of the brain responsible for memory starts to shrink, but this can be significantly slowed. [Read more…]

We were born to move, yet too many people do not prioritise exercise. This article explains how you strengthen your brain with exercise, improve learning capabilities and also slow down aging. It was once believed that our brains stopped growing when we reached a certain age. This is of course nonsense. Our brains are constantly undergoing changes, the neurons between cells can be renewed and strengthened with the right treatment, or indeed weakened and severed when not treated with care. Exercise is key in maintaining the brain’s plasticity – its ability to build and repair and change throughout our lives. Take a few minutes out to read this no-nonsense, concise and informative article by Lori Rockl for Castanet.net.

Strengthen Your Brain With Exercise

Numerous studies have been conducted on brain plasticity to explore the changes in cellular structure which occur in the brain over time. A number of factors appear to contribute, from hormones generated inside the body to shock therapy. One of the most effective and least compromising is exercise. Studies show that people are able to enhance the flexibility of the brain by “exercising” it, much like exercising the musculoskeletal system can be improved or modified with exercise.
The growth of new brain cells and nerves – neurogenesis – happens when the brain blood volume increases. Blood volume increases during moderate exercise. The hippocampal area of the brain, the area responsible for memory and learning, is the area primarily affected by increased blood volume. This is good news for us with aging brains where memory seems to deteriorate and learning new things like language or music also seems to be fairly challenging.

Therefore, you strengthen your brain with exercise by stimulating neurogenesis. This happens when the blood volume increases which of course exercise induces. It’s frustrating to see people neglect exercise as they’re neglecting their bodies, their health as a whole and their brains. I speak from the heart, having parents who don’t seem to understand the importance of exercise, knowing that their aging could be considerably slowed if they undertook regular exercise. Spread the word!

If you’re regular on this blog (or indeed if you’re not) hopefully by now you’ll have understood that exercise is essential for your brain. Exercise feeds your brain. It is common knowledge, yet a lot of people do not prioritise it in their every day life. Here we can take a look at a slightly more scientific approach and evaluate what happens with glycogen (which causes fat storage) and the brain. Don’t worry, no animals were hurt in this experiment (I can’t back that up).

After the single session on the treadmill, the animals were allowed to rest and feed, and then their brain glycogen levels were studied. The food, it appeared, had gone directly to their heads; their brain levels of glycogen not only had been restored to what they had been before the workout, but had soared past that point, increasing by as much as a 60 percent in the frontal cortex and hippocampus and slightly less in other parts of the brain. The astrocytes had “overcompensated,” resulting in a kind of brain carbo-loading. The levels, however, had dropped back to normal within about 24 hours. Click here to visit the original source of the article.

If may be that you need to read this article a couple of times to fully understand it, but the overall result of these experiments was that exercise feeds your brain to a high degree, and without it, your brain will suffer. I actually added that last part, but it’s true. I’ve read it everywhere! There’s a post on this blog called Exercise For A Healthy Brain which you may wish to read (and comment on).

Archives

Categories

Welcome to Ways To Focus. Together with visitors like you, we are building the biggest and best collection of articles about ways to focus. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, employee, student, athlete or school child with ADHD, you will find all sorts of relevant information on this site which will benefit you. We cover all sorts […]

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there. Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. […]

By JEFF SHORE Lost your mojo? Feeling more like life is living you vs. you living it? Forgot how to carpe your diem? Here are ten inspiring quotes to remind you that the best version of your life is fully available to you for the making and the taking! You have what it takes to get […]